Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Making The Baskets Roll



 Last post, I bravely showed you the mess
I have in my office nook.

I decided to replace the ugly plastic tubs
under the desk in the corner with my
favorite large baskets from Target. 

Trouble is, the stuff  I keep under the desk
area tends to be heavy, mostly books and
projects waiting for some attention.
I didn't want the heavy baskets to scratch
up the wood floors.

My plan was to use cheap wood to build a
rolling platform for three baskets. The baskets
measure 15x18 each. I wanted the platforms
to be the same size as the basket bottoms.
 
The cheapest wood was plywood. The best
sized one I could find was 24x48 for $16.95
at Home Depot. It was 3/4 inch thick.

The friendly man in the wood department cut
it down to an 18 inch length and 45 inch width.
Then he cut the width into three, 15 inch pieces.
No charge for the cutting.

 I also bought 12 small rollers that turn

 around 360 degrees. Each roller was $2.65
Yeah...if you're keeping track, my cheap
platforms were starting to get out of hand!


With a package of flathead wood screws  (each
wheel takes four screws) the final talley was
about $63 to make the three platforms.

 That really hurt!

 The good thing is the wheels are always re-usable.

I may stain the platforms at a later date.
For now, I'm using them the way they are. 
I have an office to clean out, remember?

I do have a few scraps of plywood left over that I
plan to use for another project. The bad news is I
have 3 more baskets that could use platforms too.

Thanks for dropping by! 


 


At the party here:
Dwellings

Sunday, July 26, 2015

What I'm Working On


I like to tackle a few projects at a time.

 This is what I'm working on this week.
All these projects are waiting to be waxed.
Old Laundry Basket
 I used a variety of colors to add some age to
this basket I bought at a garage sale for $2.
 When I got tired of dabbing each color on, I
poured a little of each into a plastic jar and made a
slurry of a gray-brown sludge and dabbed that on.
 I used ASCP in French Gray and Vintage Market
and Design's Burlap and Taupe. 

Vintage Market and Design's paint is something
I started using lately, and I must say I like their
paint better than the other brands of chalk-type
paint. It's thinner and is really easy to distress.



This is another current project, two old wood
frames bought for $5 each. I used VMD's paint in
the color "Cotton" and distressed with a damp
green dish scraper.
The frames are going to become hand towel
holders in the master bathroom. 


I bought these two horses heads for $15 at a
thrift shop and plan to paint them. I was going
to put a backing board in the middle of the
frames and hang the horse heads in there to
hold a hand towel...
But my plan went astray when it turned out
the horses don't fit in the middle square.
Back to the drawing board on that one!

I planned to paint this frame white, but first
I slapped a little ASCP French Gray on it to 
show through when I distressed it.
 Well, I started really liking the aged
vintage look it took on.
I pushed some Miss Mustard Seed's dark
wax into the corners with a clean rag and used
her clear wax to take some back off.  
So that's the mess I'm dealing with right
now, along with cleaning out my little office
nook to make it into a hobby room.
YIKES!!!

I was so jealous of all the wonderful
rooms I saw on the blog party
Where Bloggers Create
over at My Desert Cottage, I knew it was
time to start fixin' up my room now to make
it by next year for her annual blog party.

The link is below if you missed the party.
Thanks for dropping by!






Let's all join the party here:
From My Front Porch To Yours
http://www.frommyfrontporchtoyours.com/2015/07/treasure-hunt-thursday-215-highlights.html



Elizabeth and Company

Sunday, July 19, 2015

LaurieAnna's Shopping



LaurieAnna's shop in Canton Texas has
these interesting papers, along with a whole
new room of ribbon, papers and such.


I bought three of these large ones, which could
be laminated and used as place mats.


 I plan to put them in old frames and hang them
on the wall, especially this one with a chalkboard
background.

The shop is featuring their new paper room on their
blog right now.
You can see the new room at the link below.
 
Thanks for dropping by!
 
 

 

Friday, July 17, 2015

Choosing Sunflowers...Nailed It!



I bought some sunflowers recently and learned
a lesson.
 I picked a bunch that looked like they hadn't
opened all the way yet. I had to reach into
the very center of the floral display to reach
them...on my tiptoes!
 I mistakenly thought sunflowers, like rose buds,
would open later...yeah, go ahead, you can laugh at me!
 Turns out you should buy them wide open to
get fresh ones. This bouquet faded fast!



At least the colors were very pretty.


Thanks for dropping by!





 

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Two Great Store Experiences






We made a trip to an Apple Store the other day.
Our town has a franchise ATT store, Best Buy,
and other stores that sell Apple products, but we
drove 40 miles down to a large mall in Frisco
Texas because Wild Bill believes they have the
latest and greatest in models of Apple products.
Turns out they do!

The Apple Store's sales staff was highly trained
 and knowlegable and seemed happy to let us look
over their products, hold them, and play with them.

After spending 25 minutes with us explaining
the benefits of each product, the sales associate
even recommended we go upstairs to an ATT
"corporate" store to buy our IPAD Mini 3 as he
 felt the ATT corporate store would be able to give
us a better analysis of all the plans ATT offers.
This, in fact, did save us a lot of money on our
monthly phone service!


The Apple Store's staff doesn't work on commission,
they just want you to buy Apple products. I even
offered to buy the IPAD Mini 3 from them, but they
felt we would get a better deal buying the IPAD
Mini 3 and "connectivity" at the same time at ATT.


We also found that going to a corporate store
instead of our local franchise ATT store made all
the difference in the world. Once again, seemed
the staff was just so much better trained.


Our salesclerk quickly ran through the best options
 with us and put Wild Bill's phone on a "Go-Phone"
 option instead of doing away with it as we had
planned. He pays 10 cents a minute by pre-paying
a minimum of $25 -- no more monthly service fee!
He seldom uses his cell phone, and doesn't text,
so this was his best option. When he needs more
minutes, he buys another $25's worth.


I just want to give a shout out to these two stores.
We are so use to bad customer service these days
that finding two stores with a sales staff this
good was a shock, as well as a pleasure.


No money, no products...no nothing...was paid or
given to me for this endorsement.
I'm just one satisfied customer saying:


"Well done ATT and the Apple Store"


Thanks for dropping by!








 


 

Friday, July 10, 2015

The Lost Trees



Here's what happens to the beautiful trees
in our area when a long-term drought is
followed by buckets and buckets of rain.
The trees start dying from the inside due
to lack of water. Then the heavy rains make
the trees so heavy, they just fall over.

Luckily this tree went over backwards and
not onto the street in front of it. 

 Sad to see them go, but new ones will
take their place...
Life Goes On


Thanks for dropping by!

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Posts To Inspire Your July 4th Decorating






I was stumped this year for ideas to decorate so
I looked up some old ideas from previous
years to get inspired.
Apparently I was focused on the kitchen
and chalkboards last year...
  I'm really going to have to learn to write
something on the chalkboards besides 
Happy 4th!


I used that same snappy phrase for 2013 too:

  Back in 2012, I was all about the chickens
and flags...
That was before we hung the TV over the mantle.
I think I want my mantle back for decorating!
These pictures made me realize I'm not
much of a July 4th decorator, so I checked
out some blogs for ideas.


Over at Let's Add Sprinkles blog, Katie
showed how to make bunting with a table
runner from the thrift store:
(Let's Add Sprinkles)



At Karen's Up On The Hill, I learned I can do
more with those Dollar Store flags than stick
them in flower pots (duh)

(Karen's Up On The Hill)

Karen used a little flag and some iron-on to make
a knock-off Potterybarn pillow...
 And if that wasn't cute enough, she replaced
pictures in frames with the little flags too!

HEY... I CAN DO THAT!!!


Hurry over to Karen's and Katie's blogs to
get the full details:


http://www.karensuponthehill.com


http://katietreasures.blogspot.com



Thanks for dropping by!




Joining:
The Dedicated House's Anything Blue Friday